Donald Campbell's record-breaking craft returns to the Lake District after a long and bitter row.
Donald Campbell's restored Bluebird will finally return to the Lake District on Saturday, nearly 60 years after the crash that claimed the record-breaker's life. It follows a painful saga that erupted into anger and bitterness.Introducing himself as an amateur diver, Bill Smith outlined his ambition to locate Bluebird's crumpled wreckage on the dark, unforgiving bed of Coniston Water in England's North West."How dare you," she says she replied.
But the call's combative nature foreshadowed a hostility that included legal proceedings as Coniston's Ruskin Museum - gifted the wreckage by the Campbell Family Heritage Trust in 2006 - sought to enforce the craft's return from Mr Smith's North Shields workshop. "He has held her up for ransom to the trustees by refusing to give her back. I will never forgive him for that. I'd like to think he realised the right thing to do was hand her over to her legal owners, but it's more likely he knew he didn't have a case that would stand up in court.
"They offered him the most amazing deal," Miss Campbell says. "But he would not negotiate on those terms. I will never understand why he didn't grasp that opportunity." Exactly when his position regarding ownership first changed remains unclear despite requests for clarification. It was a position he reiterated many times, although today he says the plan was "always" to donate that work to the museum with the "quid pro quo we would operate and maintain the boat".Bill Smith vowed to "fight to the death" over Bluebird's ownership but he has relinquished his claim
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